1. Field
The disclosure relates generally to an improved data processing system, and more specifically to a computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer program product for providing an enterprise service bus for connecting various applications together using a universal port type.
2. Description of the Related Art
A Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a collection of services that communicate with one another over a network in order to carry out business processes. Communication in a service oriented architecture can involve the simple passing of data or can involve two or more services that coordinate some activity. Such services are loosely coupled (meaning that one application does not need to know the technical details of another application in order to communicate with the other application), have well-defined platform independent interfaces, and are reusable. In general, a service-oriented approach enables one or more businesses to link together fragmented data and business processes in order to create a more complete view of operations.
A service in a service oriented architecture is a function which can be invoked via an implementation-independent interface. A service provider is an entity that offers a service to other entities, and an entity that makes use of a service by triggering its execution is a service requestor. A service oriented architecture provides flexibility by allowing a service requestor to discover and invoke a service dynamically based on the pre-published service interface (i.e., the description of the functionality provided by the service). A service request may be processed by one of multiple possible service providers. An intermediary, such as an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), typically determines the particular service provider implementation to be used to process the request. The enterprise service bus is used to connect applications so that the functionality and data owned by one application can be shared across all applications connected to the enterprise service bus.